Bakul Bon Award for Maniram Sonowal

The Bakul Bon Award 2012, which honours those personalities who have dedicated their lives towards the preservation and promulgation of folk art, culture and traditions of Assam, has been conferred on noted folk artist Maniram Sonowal. A Sonowal Kachari folk artist and researcher of the traditional songs and dances of the Bodo Kacharis, Maniram Sonowal was selected for his immense contribution towards popularising Kachari traditional culture among the young generation over the last three decades.

The award, instituted by the Bakul Bon Trust, Assam, carries Rs 10,000 in cash and a citation. The Bakul Bon Award is conferred every year in memory of ‘Bakul Bonor Kabi’ Ananda Chandra Barua and his better-half Pramila Barua.

Sonowal was born in 1945 at Nakhat Gaon under Lengeri mouza. In 1962, he joined the then Assam BSF and took part in three wars. He was awarded with four medals for his courage shown in the battlefields. In 1984, he took voluntary retirement from his job due to family problems.

Since then Sonowal has been working incessantly for preserving and promulgating the traditional folk cultures of Kachari people. He has authored a book on the folk songs of various communities and tribes of Assam. He has also produced a VCD on the Bahua dance of the Sonowal Kachari community in 2010. He has also travelled across the entire North-east region to collect the old songs of various tribes.